Illustrating for Children.

I was chatting to laura about illustration the other day, and about how it's regarded as a poor relation by "real" artists. How is it that you are paid hundreds of thousands for a splodge of white paint on white canvas, or a pickled corpse or even a urinal made in a factory, but the imaginative and talented artwork designed to inspire our next generation is only worth a few hundred at most. We seem to be happy to give the most important jobs of all, like teaching, to someone paid peanuts. Is this how little we value our children?